With another spectacular weekend of weather on our side, Kyle Tarry and I decided to meet at Snoqualmie Pass for some midwinter climbing. It had been a LONG time since we roped up, so we were overdue to get the band back together. Kyle and I climbed New York Gully on Snoqualmie Mountain on January 25th, 2025.

Kyle and I have a long history of mountain adventures together, so it’s always special when we rope up. A shared intuition develops between us when we are on a climb, where major decisions and strategy choices don’t even need to be discussed. We’re always on the same page and one of us is always ready to take the lead when the other is getting beat down. This is what partnership is about!

Kyle is undoubtedly the stronger mixed climber between us. I knew I’d be counting on his skill and speed when we reached the harder pitches, so I volunteered to block lead the first couple of pitches to get there. The first pitch was quite mellow and went quickly, though there was only one place to place protection. On pitch 2, the “real” climbing began as I worked my way up steep snow patches and chossy troughs. The traversing nature of these pitches meant that Kyle was safely to the side of the fall line; this allowed me to simply throw loose rock over my shoulder when it was in my way. A definite lack of ice on the route became apparent here given that the loose rock was not frozen together. I placed protection whenever I could find it and carefully picked my way to a belay at the base of the “box gully” which is the defining feature of this route.

Now that we’d reached the “box gully,” it was Kyle’s time to shine. He launched on the third pitch which went at sustained M4 without too much drama. The climbing was high quality: engaging but doable with reasonable protection. The fourth pitch was a different beast altogether. Kyle took an hour working his way up slabby dihedrals, loose blocks, and 2-inch thick ice blobs before he found an anchor almost exactly 60 meters above me. Following the pitch gave me serious appreciation for his skill and tenacity. At one point, I cleaned a nested stubby ice screw and micro cam. This pitch was real-deal M5 that you wouldn’t want to fall on! I had become so cold belaying in the shade that I followed the pitch wearing my belay parka and big gloves. You gotta do what you gotta do.

At the anchor, Kyle admitted that he had spent a lot of mental and physical energy getting the rope up for us. After following the pitch, I completely understood. It would be up to me to take the lead on the fifth pitch. This pitch has traditionally been referred to as an aid pitch graded A1-2. Looking up at it, I saw a splitter corner crack – the pitch would be protectable and I was determined to give it my absolute best. I worked up some steep moves, placing hand-size cams and clipping a fixed nut. I hung on the rope here, mentally preparing myself and sussing out the dime-size edges for my crampon points. Finally, I launched upward on laybacks, side pulls and loose rock. The pitch turned out to be well-protected on the hard climbing, which was about M5 or 5.9. Above the harder section, I battled through steep sugar snow and buried trees until I found an anchor another ropelength above. Yes! The technical climbing was done. From here we simulclimbed one more 90 meter traverse pitch of steep snow to reach the descent slopes, which we took back to the ski resort for an 11 hour roundtrip.

This is a great climb and worthy of any winter climber’s time! I will absolutely return to this route someday when there is more ice on it, which would make the route overall more doable and fun.

Gear notes

We brought a 60m single rope + tag line (in case of retreat), a set of offset nuts, singles of cams .2-3 with doubles of .3-.5, and four ice screws (10cm-13cm). Only one ice screw was placed on the entire route and we could have skipped screws completely given the lack of ice. Short screws are the ticket – I wouldn’t bother bringing anything longer than a 13cm on the route even if it is iced up. Confident mixed climbers may get by without the #3 cam. I would bring a similar rack if I went again.

Strategy Notes

We proved that this route is climbable in very dry conditions. That said, be aware that this climb is on a cold NW aspect and develops ice in different (warmer) conditions than more sunny routes in this area. This rig would be a lot more fun with some ice on it!